|
Arkansas Best Corp. - Transportation / Trucking -
Category Directory
3801
Old Greenwood Road
Fort
Smith, Arkansas 72903
479-785-6000
www.arkbest.com
Sales
$1.5
billion
Business Description
The Company’s less-than-truckload (“LTL”) motor carrier operations are
conducted through ABF, ABF Freight System (B.C.), Ltd. (“ABF-BC”), ABF
Freight System Canada, Ltd. (“ABF-Canada”), ABF Cartage, Inc. (“Cartage”),
Land-Marine Cargo, Inc. (“Land-Marine”), FreightValue, Inc. (“FreightValue”)
and ABF Freight System de Mexico, Inc. (“ABF-Mexico”) (collectively “ABF”).
LTL carriers offer services to shippers, transporting a wide variety of
large and small shipments to geographically dispersed destinations. LTL
carriers pick up shipments throughout the vicinity of a local terminal and
consolidate them at the terminal. Shipments are consolidated by destination
for transportation by intercity units to their destination cities or to
distribution centers. At distribution centers, shipments from various
locations can be reconsolidated for other distribution centers or, more
typically, local terminals. Once delivered to a local terminal, a shipment
is delivered to the customer by local trucks operating from the terminal. In
some cases, when one large shipment or a sufficient number of different
shipments at one origin terminal are going to a common destination, they can
be combined to make a full trailer load. A trailer is then dispatched to
that destination without rehandling.
ABF
Freight System, Inc.
Headquartered in Fort Smith, Arkansas, ABF is the largest subsidiary of the
Company. ABF accounted for approximately 90.0% of the Company’s consolidated
revenues for 2003. ABF is one of North America’s largest LTL motor carriers,
based on revenues for 2003 as reported to the U.S. Department of
Transportation (“D.O.T.”). ABF provides direct service to over 98.6% of the
cities in the United States having a population of 25,000 or more. ABF
provides interstate and intrastate direct service to more than 40,000 points
through 290 terminals in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico. Through an
alliance and relationships with trucking companies in Mexico, ABF provides
motor carrier services to customers in that country as well. ABF has been in
continuous service since 1923. ABF was incorporated in Delaware in 1982 and
is the successor to Arkansas Motor Freight, a business originally organized
in 1935. Arkansas Motor Freight was the successor to a business originally
organized in 1923.
ABF offers national, interregional and regional transportation of general
commodities through standard, expedited and guaranteed LTL services. General
commodities include all freight except hazardous waste, dangerous
explosives, commodities of exceptionally high value and commodities in bulk.
ABF’s general commodities shipments differ from shipments of bulk raw
materials, which are commonly transported by railroad, pipeline and water
carrier.
General commodities transported by ABF include, among other things, food,
textiles, apparel, furniture, appliances, chemicals, non-bulk petroleum
products, rubber, plastics, metal and metal products, wood, glass,
automotive parts, machinery and miscellaneous manufactured products. During
the year ended December 31, 2003, no single customer accounted for more than
3.0% of ABF’s revenues, and the ten largest customers accounted for less
than 10.0% of ABF’s revenues.
Intermodal Operations
General
The Company’s intermodal transportation operations are conducted through
Clipper Exxpress Company (“Clipper”). Headquartered in Lemont, Illinois,
Clipper offers domestic intermodal freight services, utilizing a variety of
transportation modes including rail and over-the-road. Clipper provides a
variety of transportation services such as intermodal and truck brokerage,
warehousing, consolidation, transloading, repacking, and other ancillary
services. As an intermodal marketing operation, Clipper arranges for loads
to be picked up by a drayage company, tenders them to a railroad, and then
arranges for a drayage company to deliver the shipment on the other end of
the move. Clipper’s role in this process is to select the most
cost-effective means to provide quality service and to expedite movement of
the loads at various interface points to ensure seamless door-to-door
transportation.
Clipper also provides high quality, temperature-controlled intermodal
transportation service to fruit and produce brokers, growers, shippers and
receivers and supermarket chains, primarily from the West to the Midwest,
Canada, and the eastern United States. As of December 31, 2003, Clipper
owned 570 temperature-controlled trailers that it deployed in the seasonal
fruit and vegetable markets. These markets are carefully selected in order
to take advantage of various seasonally high rates, which peak at different
times of the year. By focusing on the spot market for produce transport,
Clipper is able to generate, on average, a higher revenue per load compared
to standard temperature-controlled carriers that pursue more stable
year-round temperature-controlled freight. Clipper services also include
transportation of non-produce loads requiring protective services and
leasing trailers during non-peak produce seasons.
Trucking Companies in the
Directory
Arkansas Best
CNF
J.B. Hunt
Swift Transportation
USF
Yellow Roadway
|
|
